In security applications, separate systems are often needed to provide access control, burglar alarm, and audio and video capabilities at access points in an individual office or a facility including one or more buildings. An integrated network based security system such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,467,400 issued Dec. 16, 2008, and assigned to the assignee of the present application, combines these features into a single system using one or more network controllers and multiple network enabled nodes, also referred to as network nodes or nodes, placed at access points and locations where monitoring and surveillance is desired. Network enabled nodes include devices which provide access control, environmental monitoring, video surveillance, video recording and audio intercom functionality and which communicate over a network. Access control systems include alarm systems and physical access systems. Security systems for larger facilities often require supervision of numerous access points some of which may be on a private LAN, a corporate LAN, a virtual LAN (VLAN), a virtual private network (VPN), or the Internet.
The installation and the operation of an integrated network based security system are often complicated by network topologies which span more than a single local area network (LAN) or subnet. Another problem, relating to the operation of the integrated network based security system, is the control and addressing of the various individual nodes from one or more network controllers. Managing the configuration of the network nodes is further complicated by the requirement for configuration and operation over various network topologies including the configuration of network nodes on networks separate from a corresponding network controller for example where the network node and the network controller communicate over the Internet. A conventional technique such as multicasting allows a group of receivers located anywhere on the Internet to share a data stream using the IGMP protocol. Another conventional technique, Zeroconf, is used to allocate addresses without a DHCP server. Although Zeroconf automatically assigns addresses, the addresses are ephemeral and may change when a network node is restarted.
Some conventional systems, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,757,723, issued Jun. 29, 2004 entitled “Methods and apparatus for remote configuration of an appliance on a network” configure a network appliance from a remote location but do not attempt to attempt to configure network nodes controlled by the appliance. It would, therefore, be desirable to provide an integrated security system including distributed control, monitoring, audio and video devices operating over a distributed network topology. It would be further desirable to provide a method to configure network nodes to enable control across the Internet or a wide area network to simplify the security system installation.